I never knew how much I missed Spitting Image until I watched Arena: Whatever Happened To Spitting Image (BBC4). Imagine, 15million people a week used to tune into a bunch of puppets savaging politicians. We actually cared enough about what was going on to do that.

True, puppeteers Peter Fluck and Roger Law and the rest of the Spitting Image team struck satirical gold in the form of Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative cabinet but are things really so much better now? Just because we’re adrift in the politics of the bland, does that mean they should be spared the comedic water cannon?

My guess is if someone brought back Spitting Image now, it could be an enormous hit. But has anyone got the latex balls to try it? Would they be hit with law suits the minute they went on air? Those questions won’t be bothering the creators, who cheerily admitted their programme was the product of angry, youthful loins.

‘I don’t throw my dinner at the television any more,’ said Fluck (or it might have been Law). ‘That’s a good sign.’

It turned out the only people who survived the high-intensity Spitting Image workload had high energy or were on drugs. Or quite probably both.

Now settled back in middle age, Law (or it might have been Fluck) ruefully recognised that where once they thought they’d change the world, now they knew ‘it doesn’t change anything’. However, someone really should be trying.